We have had so many teachers and they were all very different, but this year we especially love our teacher.

We love Mrs. Sparky even if on some days the world hangs down from her ears. By the end of the day, we will have seen all seven continents, spinning around her head. Our teacher loves to wear these miniature world globe earrings because one of her many dear students gave them to her as a gift. Now, that gives us ideas on what kind of gifts to give her.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she looks like a little girl holding stuffed animals. Right in the middle of a lesson, we will suddenly realize that she has somehow managed to collect all the stuffed animals that we have brought to school. A giraffe and two monkeys are stuffed under her arm as she teaches her lesson. We should bring a variety of stuffed animals and see who smiles at us next from under the teacher’s arm.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she wears clothes that make our eyes cross as we are watching her teach a lesson. She sometimes wears a black and white checkered blazer over a checkered dress. Yes, can you imagine that! The checks are so small that if you look at her long enough your eyes cross and you get lost. It’s happened quite often and we have to shake our heads and look somewhere else to refocus. We have to remember to not look at her too long on the days she is wearing this outfit.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she practically climbs the shelves and walls in the classroom. She pulls down world maps and since she doesn’t have a pointer she climbs on a chair and teeters precariously as she points to a country. We all hold our breath until she is back on the floor and then breathe a big sigh of relief.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she disappears. She has us working in groups of four on projects and we are all over the classroom. Some of us work on desks, others on tables or the floor. We will look high and low for her, until we finally spot her, kneeling with a group of students, bent over their map. Then we will go over to her and tell her not to do many disappearing acts.

We love Mrs. Sparky even if she gets angry, because one or more of us pushed her a little too far. She makes her lips thinner and narrow and speaks through clenched teeth in the lowest voice ever. Or she gives you “the look”. We are learning it is better to pay attention.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when we can tell when she is catching a cold. She gets crabbier, starts to sniffle, sneezes and coughs till she is red in the face. She talks quieter and holds her head in her hands more often. On these days we try to remember to help her as much as we can.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she tries to make our lessons more interesting. One day she begins a lesson by yelling, “5,4,3,2,1,0 and BLAST OFF!” She brings in rocks, feathers, insects, anything you name it and it has been in our classroom. So we look forward to each day with a little hesitation.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she brings in a garden during lunch. She crunches on crisp, green broccoli, chomps on a seedy cucumber, pops a cherry tomato into her mouth and squishes it, or eats food we never heard of before, like bulgar, wheat germ and tofu. Who knows, maybe they really do taste delicious and we don’t know what we are missing out on.

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she continues reading past our silent reading time. She seems to enjoy reading as much as we do. But we know what time is quitting time. Later she asks us to guess what she was reading about by giving us a clue. She takes out her dance fans made from beach rye grass and dances. She could have given us a harder clue than that, but we all chorus, “Yup’ik people!”

We love Mrs. Sparky even when she thinks she has us hooked, hooked on learning, that is. We try not to let on that she has. Maybe someday when we are older we will write her a letter and say: “You did hook us!”

We love Mrs. Sparky even if, when she’s happy, she wiggles, smiles and laughs. She even teases us more. There are a lot of days when she is happy and you know what…it’s contagious!